Moved

We interrupt this interminable journal of one family's precious adventures in Europe to bring you a Real Time Update on that Oh-So-Smug Stars and Triangles post I wrote a few months back. I'll give you the in-a-nutshell update so you don't have to click back: 

Someone here mentioned in reference to a recent public transportation posting that they thought I might have difficulty when I moved back to the US, dealing with the lack of mass transit where ever we land. 

Me? Nah! I think I'll slip back into the US like I'm sliding on my house slippers. 

Not exactly. Unless my house slippers are meant to have little porcupines stuck in the toe bit. Sister Mercy my head is spinning. Although in my defense, I can argue that what I am suffering from is less Cultural Dissonance an more along the lines of Just Plain Disorganization.

Exhibit A: This is how we left Europe. It's not dissimilar to how we arrived in China seven years ago, although we had half as many bags and half as much Gross Weight in Children.

I think we only had six bags entering China, so ten bags, plus four, Yes-We-Were-Those-People, carry-ons (and I hand carried the Giraffe and Zebra carved masks from Tanzania and South Africa, because, I was determined that they arrive in the US in one piece) is the sum total of what we brought with us to our new house. Our new house that has no furniture. 

You might imagine that there is some rhyme or reason to the packing. You would imagine incorrectly. It's not like there are two suitcases for me, one for Jeff, one for the kitchen etc. We had a 23 kilogram limit for each bag, and we tried to weigh out before we cubed out.

Waiting for us back in the US were two key things: all of the bags Jeff had been carting back for the past year which included random suitcases of winter clothing, bric-a-brac and assorted memorabilia. Plus the entire storage unit that we had jammed full of stuff seven years ago and basically abandoned. Can you imagine packing up all of your important belongings in a large room, leaving for seven years and then coming back? 

The stuff. I can't even. Jeff rented a box truck and the two of us carted all of the stuff from the storage unit over to the house: there was a bed, and a few tables and chairs, so it wasn't like we didn't have any furniture that first week. Just, very little. Jeff's mom is in the process of downsizing, so she has given us a few lovely pieces that we're going to be using as the foundation for the rest of our furniture collection. But do note that that I have couched that (ha! furniture humor!) in the future tense. While three out of four of us have mattresses to sleep on, a week into it, the one of us who does not has begun complaining. Can you blame him?? 

But rather then collapse into First World Whinging about how I cannot find any decent cheese, and butter, what has happened to butter?? I shall instead attempt to shock and amaze you with the random things that we have found in our random unpacking of things that are randomly tossed about because, I have no place to put them. Random things that I would in a heartbeat swap out for a couch, a couch, my kingdom for a couch, would the genie just pop out of one of the three lamps that we stole from one of Jeff's friends because he foolishly gave us the key to his house and grant me a wish. 

Exhibit A: I am sorry, whoever you are, whoever you are whose handwriting I do not recognize that if I did not get you a t-shirt, unless you email me and tell me who you are and what sort of t-shirt you might be in the mood for, you will not get a t-shirt from me. So very random, so very, "who were you??" And why did I save this note for seven years? 

Books and books and books and Oh, My Word, more books! I distinctly remember getting rid of something just shy of a container of books before we vamoosed, but it turns out, we still had a container left. These Cooky McClung books will go on e-Bay so the next person who dearly wants to read them gets a go. 

The oddity about this book in particular was that there was a 100RMB (Chinese) note stuck in it. Worth about $16US, so I'll tuck that into Jeff's wallet for his next trip to China. How and why that would have happened is anyone's guess. 

This. When I un-packed this I had a horrible flashback to this post: Crystal Soulmates. I owned one of these babies and I didn't even remember! Although, not really. Mine is Waterford, and way, way nicer than the knock-off Swarovski version. One imagines it was a wedding present, and, it will be horrible if the person who gave it to me reads this and wonders what kind of a jerk doesn't remember who gave them what at their wedding. Me, I am that kind of a jerk. Mea culpa. 

And, last but not the least weird by a long shot. This is an empty bottle of A.1. Bold & Spicy that was autographed by Darrell Waltrip when he was driving the #35 Tabasco car (NASCAR, Brickyard 400). Tricky, what to do with this particular piece of memorabilia. 

Next: Hopefully, back to Europe to finish out the year. That assumes I can find a charger cord for my computer. 

Comments

[Beth P]

;)

At least they won't say "I told you so..."

And I promise for you and KW a Nationals update BEFORE THE WEEKEND! And it will have Marwaris in it so it'll segueway into your posts nicely.

:)